Tuesday, April 24, 2012

"It you wanna see the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." (House Flood 2012)

Do you think God has been preparing me for a trial
or what?!?! We are in the middle of an incredible Bible study on
the book of James….all about trials. I even
wrote a post about it a week or two ago….Check
it out HERE!

Then, Brian preached about trials on Wednesday AND Sunday night.
Brian & Chelsea are our good friends whose son was recently really, really
sick with a rare disease…..remember me asking for prayer for him awhile back? By
the way, our God is still in the miracle business in case you were wondering.
Chels (who doesn’t know it yet) is actually working on a guest post so she can
share her great testimony.

Anyway, as Brian closed out the message on Sunday night, he
reminded us that we are either just coming out of a
trial, going through one now, or about to be in
one. He encouraged us to either ask God what He was/is trying to
teach and show us through our trials, or ask Him to prepare our hearts for the
ones we’re about to face. I was praying, thanking God for the many, many
blessings in our life. We haven’t been through many trials…..so you know what
that means- One was coming. I had that feeling…so I was praying that I would
respond to it in a way that demonstrates my faith and allows God to be
glorified. Not trying to sound “super spiritual” or anything, but that was my
prayer and my heart on Sunday night. I told God that I was going to trust HIM
when it comes and not let it rock my whole world.

Speaking of trials, they also told us at the end of service
that one of the families in our church had just lost their home in a fire. They
have three sons, and the dad was in Japan on a business trip. How awful!! I
can’t even imagine. We stayed late to pray for them…

After service we
went to dinner with several of our friends. We enjoyed some fun fellowship &
laughed and talked for awhile. We pulled in the driveway around 10:15 p.m. We
opened the garage door, walked in the house, and I saw a puddle of water. I had
a moment of panic!! I immediately assumed I had left the faucet running in the
kitchen sink while rinsing out the blender or something. We turned on the lights
and found our entire floor was COVERED in standing water, and we could hear
water rushing out from somewhere. Jonathan walked to the basement and it was the
same way. He turned the water source off and I got as many towels as I could
find to start soaking it up….We started moving furniture and picking things up,
and called the insurance company immediately. I honestly wouldn't have even known how to turn the water off...so I'm SUPER thankful Big Jon was there! AND he can handle all the insurance claims stuff because he's in the construction field and deals with this type of stuff all the time.

This is going to be an absolute NIGHTMARE. We are going to have
to pack everything up and move out for a while. We are going to have to
pull up all the hardwood and completely redo the floors (lay new floors, sand,
seal, etc.), take out the cabinets and granite countertops, redo some sheetrock,
baseboards, door frames, etc., redo some framing and insulation in the basement,
have the HVAC system redone as well as the duct work, redo some tile in the
laundry room and carpet in the master, replace the furnace and alarm system, and be treated for mold and mildew. It
flooded our entire downstairs and our whole basement!!

It makes me a little nauseas to have to think about all the work
we’re about to have to do….how torn up our house will be…..and that we are going
to have to stay somewhere else for a while because our house will not be
liveable. Not exactly what I was hoping for over my summer break....

{Thankful we had all these RANDOM towels packed away in a closet
upstairs!}

{And that my hubby has a shop vac!}

BUT….

I can say this.

I am thankful for our home. For insurance.
That our house is still standing. I’m thankful we didn’t lose everything in a
fire like the sweet family at church is dealing with right now. I’m thankful we
are both safe and healthy and okay. I’m thankful it’s not anything more serious.
And while this will be a headache, it could have been so much worse. I almost
feel “guilty” even calling this a trial, because in the grand scheme of things,
this is nothing. Even though we love our home, a house is still just a
material possession.

I’m also thankful for a husband who has REALLY stepped up and
handled every bit of this like a champ. Who has kept me calm. Who is handy
enough to do almost every bit of this work himself. He really has been such a
blessing and I respect him at a whole new level already. Y’all already know I
think my husband is THE MAN (I actually just wrote about that last week too…check
it out HERE!), but now I see that when a problem arises, I can totally count
on him and trust him to be my rock through it. I’m thankful to be holding his
hand through our journey together…through the good and the bad. Through
the mountaintops….and the floods.

what about your furniture?!?!? was it all ruined too? when you hear that someone has a flood the ONLY thing that you really think about is the floors but gah it makes total sense that you'd have to get all new cabinets, doorframes...wow. I'm so so sorry :( horrible, horrible. And it's TOTALLY a trial!!!!! do not feel guilt about that! praying for yall...feel free to come escape down here with us ;) love you!!!

Oh no!! I'm so very sorry to hear about this. Props to you for staying positive and seeing it could be worse, but it still is a lot to endure. Keep focusing on the small things and write it all out... ***Hugs***

You have such a great attitude about this! I'm so sorry this happened to you!My parents recently dealt with something similar (a hose in the fridge malfunctioned) and there was about $450k of damage. They were out of their house for about 6 months, but now they are back and it's better than EVER!Y'all will be in my prayers! I know this must be so frustrating.